I'd prescribe sets of no more than 5 (even singles from the stretched positive are good for pullups) with care to nail down the form and explosive force for each exercise. Avoiding the eccentric motion of the exercise, within reason, is fine with me. Pushups, for instance, ideally should start from a dead stop. Squats, dialing in the proper level of bounce at the bottom is important.
The idea here is that you can "grease the groove" neurally , as Pavel Tsatsouline says, without having to put much actual mechanical stress on the muscle. The more times you perform a benching or squatting motion, the more ingrained those firing patterns become. Ideally for strength you'd near-max a concentric every day, as in bulgarian style training, but research shows speed work with loads around something like 35% of 1RM still have significant benefits. With these mini workouts and a strong attention to faithful-to-gym form you should be able to increase the frequency of strong neural firings for the major lifts (other than deadlift, which is helped by squatting and possibly hip thrusting) by something like 200% compared to other programs.
2. Do hypoxia/venous restricted sets on muscles you'd like to see hypertrophy. CAREFULLY. I've used ACE bandages folded over, then wrapped tightly and tucked under itself to get a blood restriction, and it seemed safe and effective. I prefer cut elastic belts, but tourniquets work as well. Remember, you're hunting the most pump (burn) possible. Generally you want to keep the occlusion under 5 minutes and shoot for ~50+ reps with a very light weight (20-35% of 1rm). I'd recommend doing this with bodyweight squats every session, because the demonstrated serum GH peak is so much higher than with arms. Larger muscle groups should be trained restricted FIRST so as to give serum GH benefit to later groups:
http://www.ergo-log.com/wantbiggerbiceps.html Squats done in hypoxic conditions will also significantly affect nutrient partitioning in the body, due to GLUT4 expression.
DIET, PERIWORKOUT NUTRITION, TIMING
Diet should be roughly the same as always - I like leangains style intermittent fasting, but depending on your schedule and goals, it may or may not be for you. At least 1.5g of protein (QUALITY SOURCES - Meat and dairy only, pretty much), 18kcal per g bodyweight on a bulk, -500kcal below maintenance on a cut. Limit sweets and starches to after the gym OR mini sessions where ever possible. I favor carb toggling styles, by which I have lower carb periods and a few short carb ups a week. This maximizes the effect of endogenous insulin production. NBC days create enhanced GLUT4 expression which shuttles nutrients to muscle even in lieu of insulin spiking.
Periworkout protocol - Mechanical Loading
-90m: last carb containing meal, if not fasting. I now fast up until the workout and use a BCAA mix as preworkout. Get protein and plenty of water, and enough carbs to sustain the workout. If you're going to hyperhydrate with glycerol and sea salt, take it now.
-30m: 400mg sulbutiamine if you take it (Lurker Stim pack) I now fast up until the workout and use a BCAA mix (~15g) as preworkout.
-20m: Caffeine+1,3dmaa if you take them. 5g L-Arginine and a recommended dose of choline source (CDP-choline, DMAE, Alpha GPC etc) will enhance GH output. Any GH releasers or somatostain inhibitors (melatonin, B6, L-dopa, Huperzine A, etc) would also be taken here.
After: Standard recovery shake with protein + creatine. I sometimes use raw fenugreek to help with the creatine absorption.
Periworkout protocol - Neural/Biochemical loading
Should be at least 90m carb and fat fasted.
-20m: 5g L-Arginine and a recommended dose of choline source (CDP-choline, choline citrate, DMAE, Alpha GPC etc) to enhance GH output. Any GH releasers (L-dopa, Huperzine A, etc) would be taken here.
Beginning or during or after workout: ~7g BCAA or 20g low carb whey. Creatine optional.
SAMPLE TEMPLATE
Use 1 rep max calculator to dial in weights.
http://www.nsca-lift.org/fly%20solo%...ram/onearm.asp
Rotate 2 exercises per bodypart slot
DAY A (Mech)
CHEST - (Preactivate BB Bench) Bench (decline BB or flat BB unless upper chest is lagging), (cable crossovers for burn)
SHOULDERS (Preactivate with push press, or skip) overhead press variations, (lat raises,vertical row, or lat raise machine for burn)
TRICEPS (Preactivate with to range dips, or skip) Presses or pulls, looking for max tension, skull crusher variants for burn
BACK WIDTH (Preactivate with target exercise) Chin/pullup/pulldown variations, bentover 1-arm motorcycle rows for burn
BACK CENTER (No preactivation) CG/DB/Tbar Row or deadlift variations for tension, strict CG cable rows for burn)
DAY B (Mech)
BICEPS - (Preactivate with loaded cg Chin/pullup) looser form curls for max power/tension, spider or preacher style strict curls for burn
FOREARMS - Don't bother preactivating, reverse curls to taste. Can do the burnout with wrist flips with dbs in hand
HAMS - Preactivate on target exercise. Barbell hip thrust/SLDL for one choice, curl/GHR variant as the other. Burnout with ham curls/GHR
QUADS - Squat variants. Probably do want back squats here, but placed chronologically BEFORE hams that training day. Should be back squatting 50+% of leg days. The stretched position is key for heavy quad exercises. For the burn sets, somersault squats, walking lunges, and high (30+) rep leg extensionsl.
TRAPS - I would add shrugs on this day, just doing them all on 1 bar or smith machine or hammer strength machine. No Preactivation needed, traps are brutal to begin with so I recommend heavy power oriented shrugs. Using the rep structure outlined for mechanical days would be fine.
CALVES - No preactivation, just a heavy set and a burnout set. Calves are proven to respond well to occlusion training and if yours are lagging AND you care enough to fix it, this is a viable option on mechanical loading OR NBC training days. Conceivably you could train calves in some form every day if they're a bad weak point. I don't bother with calves on Mechanical leg days anymore.
Sample NBC Training Session
1. Light dynamic stretch/warmup
2. Neural training. These are most easily done in circuit fashion. Compresses the workout and keeps things fresh. Mine are as follows:
6 sets of 5 speed back BW squats, focused on speed out of the hole, simulating proper bar and hand position
6 sets of 5 plyo (leaving the ground) pushups, with straight wrists (knuckle pushups) and proper hand positioning for bench press loading. Focusing on typical bench cues like tight back.
6 sets of 2-5 explosive chins from dead hang
3. Occlusion training. Use your ACE Bandages or Kaatsu bands to tie off the target body parts, close to the core.
3x sets of high rep bodyweight squats (can loosen form here). Rhythmic tempo. Feel the burn. Subsequent sets will fail much faster than the first due to continued restriction. 30+ 15+ 15+ is the bare minimum for rep requirements
3x sets of light curls while under Kaatsu venous restriction below shoulder. Rhythmic tempo. Subsequent sets will fail much faster than the first due to continued restriction. 30+15+15 is the bare minimum rep requirement.
200x calf raises while occluded.
Pushups while occluded in the arms also cause chest growth, for reasons I am unsure of. This suggest pushups and chinups could be effective under restriction as well.
DOMS from an NBC day should actually be much less than normal:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19826283 This is probably due to higher chemical anabolism.
Light stretching and/or foam roller/pvc pipe/theracane/lacrosse ball myofascial release if needed.
SAMPLE SCHEDULE
Day 1: Mech A1
Day 2:NBC
Day 3:Mech B1
Day 4:NBC
Day 5:Mech A2
Day 6:NBC
Day 7:Mech B2
Day 8:NBC
Day J:Begin repeating.
Additional NBCs can be added for 2x in a day or on workout days as well, as long as the rules apply in terms of the periworkout protocol. I'd also keep them at least 4 hours away from mechanical workouts on either side.
Link for Kaatsu bands:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pump Revolution
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DISCLAIMER
Don't be an idiot. Bloodflow restriction is serious. I haven't run this program in entirety yet, but I have experienced many of the benefits of pieces of it by adding more widowmakers and burnout sets to my own heavy lifting. Deadlift clusters, for instance, make perfect sense in light of this information regarding post tetanic activation. By managing failure, I hope this can be a more sustainable version of DC training. It's possible NBC days will interfere with normal training more than I think. We just don't know yet.
The central portion of mechanical training (rest pause without true failure) is derived from Myo-Reps and Titan Training. Traditional reverse Pyramid training or even more strength focused programs such as 1,6,1,6 or 5x5 style could theoretically be substituted for those protocols while leaving the rest of this intact. Similarly, Layne Norton's loadings for Power days on PHAT could be used in that slot.
Most lifters here would probably be best off plateauing on Starting Strength before doing ANYTHING else. As with my DC guide, this assumes you know how to train already. For newbies I in no way recommend this.
Thanks for your time, and I hope some of this makes sense. I have opted not to include more references, because they would make this totally unreadable. If you have questions about SPECIFIC reasoning, I can readily produce references or cross examples.
Lurker